FEDERAL COURT

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News Eagle - Hawley, PA

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Posted Jun. 24, 2014 at 9:04 AM

Posted Jun. 24, 2014 at 9:04 AM

CANAAN TWP. - The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced June 20 that United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion has sentenced Jose Montalban, age 42, to 15 years’ imprisonment for assaulting a correctional officer and inflicting bodily injury.

On February 12, 2014, following a three-day trial, a jury found Montalban guilty of the assault, and the illegal possession of a weapon by an inmate of the United States Penitentiary at Canaan, which is located near Waymart.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the evidence at trial established that on December 28, 2012, inmate Jose Montalban, who was serving a federal prison sentence for bank robbery, walked into an office at the USP-Canaan and took a six-inch sharpened plastic knife and began stabbing a correctional officer who was seated alone in that office. The correctional officer was stabbed three times in the face before he, and other correctional officers who responded to the unprovoked attack, were able to subdue Montalban. The correctional officer sustained three puncture wounds to the face which required nine sutures at a local hospital.

The case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons. Assistant United States Attorney John Gurganus prosecuted the case.